In a Long Term Evolution (Long Term Evolution, LTE) system, the observed time difference of arrival (Observed Time Difference of Arrival, OTDOA) positioning technology is a network-assisted terminal (User Equipment, UE) positioning technology. After an enhanced serving mobile location center (Enhanced Serving Mobile Location Centre, e-SMLC) on a network side designates configurations for transmission and reception of a positioning reference signal (Positioning Reference Signal, PRS) for a base station and a terminal, the base station sends a PRS in the downlink and the terminal performs positioning measurement, that is, measures a reference signal time difference (Reference Signal Time Difference, RSTD). The e-SMLC receives time differences of signals of different base stations from the terminal, and the time difference may be mapped to distance differences between the terminal and different base stations. By using hyperbola model calculation, the e-SMLC can obtain a precise location of the terminal.
The prior art applies to a scenario where only one carrier provides service to terminals in a cell. With the development of carrier aggregation technologies, there are multiple carriers providing service to terminals in a cell. The prior art does not relate to processing of multiple carriers in a cell and therefore, in current carrier aggregation scenarios, no appropriate positioning measurement solution is available for a terminal.